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26 November, 2013

My mind was blocked on this puzzle, although it is quite straightforward.

White to play and gain a piece...yes, it is that simple, so why it took me a few minutes to solve it, I can only wonder !
Finding out that this was actually from a game played by Tal against Larsen in Montreal 1979, made me look up the whole thing.
Well worth the meagre effort to find it.
I would assume that Tal saw the whole combination from here, at move 16/17

...all the way to the end.
Play through and enjoy it.

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21 November, 2013

From a recent 5/0 blitz game...The previous few moves have seen manoeuvring around control of the e8 square ( threat of Rook exchanges leading to mate ), but Black now has an escape square and has switched to counter-attack.25... Rb8-b2 threatens to level material by capturing the pawn. White replies 26. R6e2 giving the following position.

What should Black play ? Not complicated, but, in my opinion, instructive.Spoiler/Solution (highlight between the brackets) [ In the game, Black played 26...Rxa2, no doubt expecting 27. Rxd2 Rxa4, and re-gaining the pawn, However, the simple 27. Qxa2 gives White a winning advantage. So, best move ? 26...Qxe2, the Black Queen is exchanged for two Rooks , and Black still has a decent game ]

18 November, 2013

Although both T57 and T58 have finished, and T59 about to start, I still didn't catch up with T56 summary and games, and in fact haven't blogged since August.I played all rounds and ended up with a score of 3,5/6, with 3 wins, a draw and 2 losses : more-or-less as expected.As White, I played a consistent 1.e4 and faced a Caro-Kann ( loss ), a Sicilian ( win ) and Alekhine's Defence ( win ).As Black I played the Hanham Philidor twice ( one win, one draw ) and lost against a Réti Opening, one of the few times I have met 1.Nf3 in TL.All fairly consistent with main TL openings, as e4 is still the most played, and the Sicilian, French, and Caro-Kann the top replies.Below is a brief summary of opening play in T56. For all rounds/games, see here for round 1, and follow through for the remaining rounds.

T56 Openings Top 10

B20-B99

Sicilian

178 (15%)

C00-C19

French Defence

112 ( 9%)

B10-B19

Caro-Kann

88 ( 7% )

A10-A39

English

80 (6,5 % )

D30-D69

Queen's Gambit Declined

77 ( 6 % )

D00-D05

Queen's Pawn General (London\Colle\etc

73 ( 6 %)

A45-A50

Indian Defences\Torre Attack

60 (5%)

A04-A09

Reti

56 ( 4.5 %)

D10-D19

Slav Defence

44 (3.5%)

C60-C99

Spanish Game ( Ruy Lopez )

43 ( 3.5 % )

For those interested, all games were re-indexed in Chess Assistant 11,. The Opening classification ranges ( ie to group ECO codes), I borrowed from Chessville (many thanks, although it seems to have dis-appeared again :(